It was the fall of 2009 and Rick Byrd had his eye on one last recruit.

A key prospect had made his official visit to the Belmont campus and had played a pickup game with several members of the team. The reports were good. Byrd was ready to make a scholarship offer.

Almost.

“I told him when he left there was one other player at his position that I needed to see play before I made a final decision,” Byrd recalled.

The other player was J.J. Mann.

Byrd dutifully made his way to Chatham, Va., site of Hargrave Military Academy, where Mann was attending prep school. If ever there was such a thing as a courtesy visit, this was it. Mann already had been to Belmont on an official visit and had played pickup with some of the Bruins. The other players’ opinion: Mann wasn’t anything special.

Byrd, who is not permitted to watch such pickup games per NCAA rules, usually relies on input from his players in these situations.

“Based on what I had heard, I was fully ready to go up there and give J.J. a look and come back and offer the scholarship to the other guy,” Byrd said. “The players told me the other kid was better.”

But what unfolded on the court that day changed Byrd’s perception.

“J.J. was all over the floor, making winning plays,” he said. “He made me change my mind.”

Four-plus years later, it clearly was the right call. As he plays out his senior season with the Bruins, Mann ranks as one of Belmont’s most decorated players and is what Byrd calls “the single best ambassador this program has ever had on the campus and in the community.”

Thursday was yet another big day for Mann. In addition to participating in Senior Night activities at the Belmont-Eastern Illinois game, he was named first-team Academic All-America, a testament to his 3.51 grade-point average in an accounting major.

“These four years have really flown by,” Mann said. “Time flies when you’re having fun, and I’ve had the time of my life the last four years.”

He and fellow senior Blake Jenkins will leave Belmont as the winningest players in the program’s NCAA era. Mann and Jenkins are trying to complete an impressive four-peat: four straight conference regular-season championships, tournament championships and NCAA Tournament berths.

“It’s worked out better than I could ever have expected,” Mann said. “Everything has fallen into place here.”

Yes, it is a perfect fit. Mann’s overall game is ideal for Byrd’s system, where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. But Mann is far from a role player. Those who underestimate him do so at their own risk.

“Obviously, my athleticism is not as high as some of these guys that can put the ball between their legs and dunk,” he said. “Like Coach Byrd says, ‘Two points is two points, no matter how they get in there.’ As a senior, I’ve become more of a playmaker and learned to make the tough shot.”

Byrd said Mann “has probably made more late-game big shots than anybody we’ve ever had — shots that we had to have or we couldn’t have won the game.”

No late-game dramatics were necessary on Thursday night, when Mann scored 21 points in the Bruins’ 82-63 victory over Eastern Illinois.

Among Mann’s career highlights was his late-game flurry in Belmont’s improbable 83-80 upset of North Carolina at the Dean Dome earlier this season. There, Mann scored 11 points in the final 2:22, including the go-ahead 3-pointer with 13.1 seconds remaining.

Performances like that show what makes Mann such an effective, valuable player. He wants the ball in his hands when it matters most.

“His real strength is his desire to be in the middle of it,” Byrd said. “He wants the ball in his hands at the end of the game. He’s probably disappointed every time I call a play and it’s not for him. That’s not a selfish thing. It’s just that he wants to be the guy. I’ve had a lot of talented players who didn’t want to be the guy.

“Play him in pingpong. Play him in tennis. Play him in whatever you want. He’s going to figure out a way to beat you.”

Mann jokes about having a “clutch vein” that kicks in when the pressure is on. He credits his parents, John and Teresa Mann, both of whom played basketball at Georgia Tech.

“It’s a mentality,” he said. “You either have it or you don’t.”

J.J. Mann definitely has it.

David Climer’s column appears on Friday, Sunday, Monday and Wednesday. Reach him at 615-259-8020 and on Twitter @DavidClimer.